Business people make decisions based on the information at hand. But as data continues to be easier to access, deeper in scope, and immediately available, it has never been more pressing to think: what information is needed?

To get ready for the waves of technological change ahead, experts across industries are pushing organizations toward decision-making that is data based and more context aware.

Future impact on the market

How will these drivers impact critical decision making in 2019? Guy Van Wijmeersch of Barco says forward-looking organizations will be evolving their collective capabilities so that the right people can understand what the new situation is at any given moment.

“For context aware decision making, visualization is key,” he said. “The new reality goes beyond sending pictures or a video around. Information must be augmented with deep insights and presented visually, so that all critical stakeholders know what the situation was before, what it is in normal circumstances, and what it really is now.”

Three 2019 trends that will drive change in critical decision making

Trend #1: Automation of administration

Applications and learning systems will continue to automate administrative tasks, and the status of these tasks will be more readily available to other systems and stakeholders.

Trend #2: Empowerment within decision-making teams

Van Wijmeersch says that organizations expect their decision making to take place faster. So in 2019, they must address leadership hierarchies. “In critical situations, people could be hurt or dying, or infrastructure could be under duress. Speed is crucial and sometimes it’s about taking actions locally instead of waiting for decisions. There has to be empowerment on the edges to make active, faster, short-term decisions before the question is escalated, and that’s up to human capabilities and leadership.”

Trend #3: Communication of the situation within organizations

Decision makers need fast updates on the new situation, the new context. We are in an era when organizations are rapidly forming ways to share such knowledge anywhere, connecting whole networks or select groups. “Before, that was done by a lot of people in meetings, but new technologies like AI will help connect dots and bring different aspects, different pieces of data and information together.”

Van Wijmeersch says that with deep learning systems we will see much more data, not just through official centers of information, but unofficial centers like social media. These will be constructed and validated for a more comprehensive understanding of the current state.